The Law Cafe: Episodes 11-12

by DaebakGrits

Our characters do a little genre hopping this week, as they first tackle a riddle-filled treasure hunt and then bounce on to a horror-themed story involving an obsessive stalker. As usual, each case brings our leading couple closer, but perhaps it’s a bit too close for our leading lady to handle.

 

EPISODES 11-12 WEECAP

After Yuri and Jung-ho’s official reconciliation and agreement to let go of their negative emotions, they immediately move forward with a plan to block Pyun-woong’s bid to take over Dohan Group. With a flourish, Jung-ho shows Yuri his conspiracy theory chalkboard and giant stack of relevant case files, and as she stares in appreciation at the mound of evidence he’s collected over the years, Jung-ho reveals the first stage of his scheme. It requires his mother — namely, the company shares willed to her upon his grandmother’s death.

Jung-ho and Yuri successfully sway additional key shareholders to their side and prevent Pyun-woong from usurping his father, but Byung-wook does not remain the company chairman for long. As part of a deal he made with Jung-ho, Byung-wook resigns, and his last act as Dohan Group’s leader is to implement a new policy that dismantles the company’s familial succession line.

Thus, Pyun-woong can no longer simply inherit the chairperson position. Can he still murder and blackmail his way to the top? Well, that’s still to be determined, but I wouldn’t put it past him to try.

The outcome of the shareholder meeting is a befitting punishment for Pyun-woong, whose illegitimacy is a major point of contention and a source of insecurity for him, but without the company takeover as a means for Pyun-woong to punish his father and to assert his legitimacy in the family, he’s likely to unleash a new level of unhinged maliciousness. And, of course, Yuri (being Yuri) fans the flames of Pyun-woong’s recent defeat by brake-checking him in the parking lot.

I can’t say that I blame her for zero-to-sixying her car towards Pyun-woong and vengefully reenacting her hit-and-run accident (that he’d so obviously orchestrated), but she should know by now that Pyun-woong is sadistic. He’s going to see her actions as a challenge — or a weird form of flirtation — and as soon as he’s done with his childish temper tantrum he’s going to come for her and Jung-ho.

In the meantime, Team Cafe moves forward with Yuri’s most recent case, which was introduced last week. Interestingly, what started out as a simple — but occasionally physically violent — dispute between siblings over their inheritance turns into a riddle-filled mystery. Yuri’s client received a cryptic poem from her dying father.

The poem leads Yuri and her crack team of detectives on a treasure hunt, breaking into a hidden safe and jumping off a second floor balcony with an exaggerated sense of urgency that is both overkill and unabashedly entertaining. And while they do find — much to Joon’s delight — a briefcase full of gold bars at the end of their adventure, the real prize is the happiness their client discovers in knowing that her father loved and cherished her — even if his misguided sexism previously skewed his perspective and caused him to treat her like a delicate flower when she was younger.

Along the way, Yuri undergoes a similar journey as she begins to piece together the extent of Jung-ho’s feelings for her. Although he claims that he started liking her after she confessed to him, the pieces do not add up. First, Jin-ki slips up and accidentally hints at the longevity of Jung-ho’s feelings, and then she finds a bookmark tucked among the pages of an anthology of love poems.

The bookmark triggers a memory — and a flashback — of when they were younger. As they walk along the streets of a quaint neighborhood, Yuri pauses to look wistfully at a coffee shop. She confesses to Jung-ho that her dream is to make enough money as a lawyer so that she can one day open her own warm and cozy office. And she wants to work there with him.

In the present, Yuri realizes that her law cafe is housed in the exact same building that she and Jung-ho stopped to admire all those years ago. You know, the multi-story building that Jung-ho purchased.

Along with the recognition, comes the undeniable implications of Jung-ho’s property procurement, and Yuri immediately seeks Jung-ho out for confirmation. She calls him, but on the other end of the dial tone, Jung-ho ignores her in order to say goodbye to his mother, who uses that particular moment to give her motherly approval of Yuri.

Before Jung-ho can return Yuri’s call, though, he accepts one from CEO Gil, who has been hunting the driver of the car that hit Yuri. Well, not only has he identified the man, but he also discovered that the driver is a convicted murderer — and his victim was an employee in Dohan’s accounting department. If they can find the driver, CEO Gil says, then they can have Pyun-woong arrested for conspiracy to commit murder.

About that… Pyun-woong found out Jung-ho was tracking his hired goon, and at that very moment he’s disposing of the loose end — himself. Pyun-woong has moved past hiring former convicts to do his dirty work, and now he gets the job done himself. And what’s worse, he enjoys it, and now that he’s gotten a taste for blood, he’s unlikely to stop.

From a viewer’s perspective, I absolutely love his chaotic evolution, but for the sake of our characters, I’m worried. If Yuri keeps using her defiant bravado as a metaphorical stick to poke the bear, they are going to be in a lot of perilous situations going forward.

Even though Jung-ho doesn’t know the full extent of the danger he and Yuri are in now, he’s understandably panicked when he tries to return Yuri’s phone call and she doesn’t answer. Fearing that Pyun-woong’s (now disposed of) murderous goon has come after Yuri, he’s immensely relieved to find her safe and sound.

Yuri ignores his palpable concern, though, because her patented impatience demands an answer: Just how long has he had feelings for her? He tries to fudge the truth again, worried that the longevity of his feelings will pressure her into making a decision she’s not ready to make, but she won’t accept his lie this time around.

Finally, Jung-ho admits that she has always been his “only one,” and after a moment’s hesitation to absorb his confession — just enough time for me to also finish squeeing over his words — Yuri grabs his collar and pulls him into a kiss. And wowzah! Aside from Jung-ho’s goofy open-eye initial reaction, it’s quite the kiss — one that continues to build in passion when Yuri and Jung-ho enter his apartment.

This was — legit — one of the hawtest makeout sessions in dramaland, and while some may not like the overt sexuality of this particular scene, I personally welcomed it. Yuri may have been slow to figure out her feelings for Jung-ho, but their love has been a long time coming. So, it makes sense that once they’re both finally in a place where they can let go of their baggage and embrace the full extent of their emotions, they just go for it. They’re like a pair of runners who have shed the training weights from around their ankles and have let themselves sprint forward with their full ability.

But instead of crossing the finish line — if you know what I mean — they’re interrupted by Seo-yeon and Jin-ki knocking on Jung-ho’s door. Despite their obviously disheveled appearances (that do not go unnoticed by Seo-yeon’s keen detective eyes), Yuri hides the fact that she and Jung-ho are now an item. This becomes a bit of a sore spot for Jung-ho, who would undoubtedly like to shout out the good news from his rooftop apartment, but Yuri is a bit shy about going public because she has a long track record of failed relationships — not that Jung-ho’s record is much better.

Even though Yuri says she wants to keep the relationship on the down low, they’re — as Joon puts it — the most “public secret relationship” ever, and the whole neighborhood quickly figures out they’re dating. Joon and Eun-kang grow sick watching Jung-ho’s lovey-dovey attentiveness, and it’s so excessive that even Yuri is annoyed with her hovering helicopter boyfriend. Too bad his protectiveness gets worse when the hit-and-run driver’s body is discovered. Yuri wants a lover — not a guardian — and so, their first fight as a couple is over her need for a healthy amount of breathing room.

Unfortunately, she’s not going to get her desired space any time soon. You see, around the time the hit-and-run driver’s body turns up, so does Woo-jin’s stalker, and in order to protect his girlfriend and his cousin, Jung-ho sets up a tent in Yuri’s living room. The three of them have a sleepover, and over beer they discuss the conflicting emotions Woo-jin felt when his former patient developed an unhealthy and obsessive attachment to him.

The next day, while Yuri meets up with DA-YOUNG (Shin So-yul), another lawyer interested in opening a similar law cafe, Jung-ho and the rest of Team Cafe set up a sting operation to catch the man who’s been following and taking pictures of Woo-jin on behalf of his stalker. After interrogating the hired photographer, they learn that Woo-jin’s stalker has made contact with Yuri. That’s right, Da-young is the stalker, and while the boys were busy catching her photographer, she drugged and hogtied Yuri up in her apartment.

Jung-ho’s worst fears have come true, but to compound the situation is an added sense of helplessness that he cannot save her. The home address Da-young gave her hired photographer was a fake, and instead of rescuing Yuri, Jung-ho is sent on a wild goose chase. So when Da-young’s doorbell rings — and interrupts her very Single White Female moment of trying to replace Yuri as the object of Woo-jin’s affection — it’s not Jung-ho on the other side of the door. It’s Pyun-woong — Yuri’s (other) stalker and second-rate savior.

As much as Pyun-woong likes the Prince Charming analogy for his “heroics,” though, he didn’t rescue Yuri out of the goodness of his heart. No, it’s all part of his mind games — an attempt to get under her skin and make her feel icky at the thought of being rescued by the man who framed her father. It’s pretty damn effective, too, but in saving Yuri, he also let Da-young escape.

So when Jung-ho gets the call that Yuri is safe and sound and at the police station, Woo-jin hangs back and faces Da-young on his own. Unlike the past — when his sympathy overruled his desire to see her punished for her crimes — Woo-jin is stern and resolute.

His resolve is largely due to Yuri, who told him not to forgive Da-young this time around. Although Yuri understood his desire to be lenient with his former patient, she advised him to think of his loved ones and how they would feel if something happened to him because he let his stalker go unpunished. After a pretty intense fight with Da-young, who wants them to die together like Romeo and Juliet, she is arrested, and Woo-jin leaves the encounter mostly unscathed and with a supportive group of friends at his side.

The experience with the stalker also affected Jung-ho. He’s still a giant ball of anxiety — and having the love of his life kidnapped certainly did the exact opposite of alleviating his fears — but he’s able to acknowledge that his recent behavior has crossed over into the obsessive category. Afraid that he has the potential to spiral out of control, like Da-young, and self-sabotage his relationship with Yuri, he opens up to her about his constant fear that he will lose her — either through a tragic accident or a breakup.

She responds by telling him to trust that she will protect herself, and there really isn’t much more he can do than that. I hope Yuri cuts him a little slack, though. Yes, he was smothering, but Yuri also has a way of getting herself into trouble. Not to mention, Jung-ho’s murderous uncle has his eyes on her, and even though he offered Jung-ho a truce (of sorts) — “I’ll leave you alone, if you leave me alone” — we all know Yuri isn’t going to just step aside and let Pyun-woong continue murdering people.

So while this week’s episodes ended with a positive message about love and how to express it, we’ve got a lot more darkness ahead. Pyun-woong’s character is evolving, and it’s only a matter of time before Yuri says or does something that shatters whatever spell she’s cast over him that prevents him from wanting to cause her outright harm.

With only four episodes left, I hope our story backs away from the case-of-the-day format and focuses more on Pyun-woong as the external source of conflict for our characters. Not only is he creepily engaging, but — for a Big Bad — he’s not getting a lot of screen time. In fact, the whole shareholder blockade was a massive rush job — but I’m not going to complain too much about that. The whole save-the-company-by-gaining-the-majority-of-company-shares story arc is a pretty boring one.

What I did like this week, though, was the time given to Woo-jin and how the story addressed (and closed the door on) his small unrequited crush on Yuri. In an episode that was focused mostly on toxic and poorly expressed loves, his affection for Yuri was the healthiest of the bunch. Not to mention, Jung-ho’s quiet understanding and trust as he watched Yuri comfort his cousin — even if the hug was a bit too long for his tastes. So, stalker aside, it was a fairly nice feature of one of our loveable side characters. Now, if only our drama will give Eun-kang and the single mother a similar amount of air time.

 
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